


Play Your Part Well

by weasleytook



Category: National Treasure (2004), National Treasure (Movies)
Genre: Espionage, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, implied polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-28
Updated: 2015-10-28
Packaged: 2018-04-28 16:54:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5098184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weasleytook/pseuds/weasleytook
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Play pretend, they said. It'll be fun, they said.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Play Your Part Well

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Muir_Wolf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Muir_Wolf/gifts).



> I don't usually like to apologize before a fanfic, but I'm sorry?
> 
> I love you, Marie!

It is hardly his first fancy party, there had been plenty after the three of them had made worldwide news for their discoveries. It was always Ben and Abigail, and Riley the third wheel. Not that Ben and Abigail treat him that way, that feeling was all on him. So it isn’t the fancy party that’s making him nervous, its that he suddenly has to pretend he’s James Bond and not Riley Poole.

“If anyone is James Bond tonight, it’s me.” That is what Abigail says when he proposes using a British accent as his cover.

“How do you figure that?”

“I’m the one that got us invited to this party, my name – my fake name – is on the invitation. I speak fluent German, very useful at the party of a German billionaire in Berlin. And who is more likely to win in a fight, me or you?”

Riley straightens the cuffs on his tux for what has to be the tenth time and frowns at her. “I could win in a fight. Probably.”

Ben is grinning just slightly as he looks at them from over the laptop “Sorry, Riley, but Abby’s been taking Krav Maga classes a few days a week.”

“So then I’m Q?”

“Q doesn’t go on missions, so you’re like… my Bond girl.”

She gives him an affection pat on the cheek and Riley just shrugs. “I’m strangely okay with that.”

The whole hunt had been his idea, rumors of the Koenig family having a cache of priceless artifacts had been going around for decades, and Riley’s constant trawling of underground forums and chat rooms had paid off with really solid intel. But unlike most of their hunts, where Riley stayed in the van and Ben and Abigail did the adventure stuff, Riley has to hack Andreas Koenig’s hard drive from the inside of his house. So this time, Ben is staying in the van while Riley and Abigail are going inside.

Abigail had procured an invitation to Koenig’s party, posing as an Austrian heiress, while Riley was pretending to be her American husband. They were to mix and mingle like any other couple, until Ben dismantles Koenig’s security protocols, per Riley’s detailed instructions, and gives them the signal to sneak into his office.

She adjusts her earpiece one last time, pulls her hair over her ears to hide it then nudges Riley to get out of the van. They get into the limo that’s waiting in front of the van and sit in awkward silence until they reach Koenig’s palatial home at the top of a hill. Abigail gives him a serious look before he exits the car and says, “Remember, tonight, you’re my husband, not my –“

“Yeah, yeah, I got it.”

It isn’t like he’s never thought about what it would be like if he had been the guy Abigail had fallen for, and not Ben. But, of course it had Ben. They had been thrown together in outrageous circumstances, and it was always going to be Ben. Riley was the sidekick and Ben was the hero, and Riley cared too much about both of them to let it become a thing, so he just tamped down any feelings he had for her and carried on. Their work and their friendships were all too important to worry about something that was never going to happen.

Tonight though, he has a part to play. He steps out of the limo and holds out a hand to help her out of the car. She is always beautiful, but tonight in her purple gown, she looks so stunning, he doesn’t have words for it.

He takes a deep calming breath and reminds himself to be cool, but instead of actually being cool, he immediately trips on the first step leading up to Koenig’s house. Abigail catches him at the elbow and they both laugh, letting him recover without looking like a complete idiot. He remembers his role and places his hand at the small of her back as they make their way up the steps together, pausing only for Abigail to have her invitation inspected by security.

That is the easy part.

They had decided to wait at least an hour so that the party would be crowded enough that no one would notice them slipping away. They nurse the same glasses of wine, so as not to get too drunk to do their jobs, and eat fancy hors deuvres passed around on trays, and Abigail does most of the talking since her German is perfect, even when she’s faking an Austrian accent.

They have their cover story perfected and even Riley is impressed with how well they’re playing their parts. They are Lena Reiter and Jonathan Ramsey tonight, she’s the Austrian heiress and he’s the American software engineer that she met on a ski trip in Colorado. They even have cute anecdotes about their relationship, details about their wedding in Aruba and their honeymoon in Greece.

Riley isn’t sure about how to deal with displaying affection at first, but Abigail is a natural, always finding ways to touch his arm or his back and it instantly makes him feel better about doing the same to her.

Hoping to end a particularly boring conversation with a Baroness, Abigail pulls him on the dance floor and she gives him a very surprised look when he smoothly waltzes around the floor with her.

“Well, looks like I still have a lot to learn about you, husband.”

He smiles and pulls her a little closer, because, why the hell not, he thinks. “I don’t know about that. I think you know me better than anyone.”

She looks doubtful. “Better than Ben? No way.”

“Yes, better than Ben. It’s not that Ben isn’t a great friend, it’s just he has a tendency to –“

“Get so wrapped up in whatever mission he’s on, he forgets to listen to, well, anyone.”

“Yes, that.”

She smiles at him then rests her head on his shoulder and Riley has to mentally stop himself from getting caught up in this weird alternate universe where Abigail could love him like that. But for a just a moment, it feels far too real, especially when she lifts her head and puts her lips so close to his ear they’re almost touching.

“It’s time to go,” she whispers.

“Huh?”

She subtly motions to her earpiece, indicating that Ben has given the signal, but before Riley snaps out of being Jonathan entirely, he gives her a kiss on the cheek. Abigail grins and grabs his hand, leading him off the dance floor and up the stairs to the second floor. Riley’s plan was for Ben to cause glitches in the security system that would direct Koenig’s staff away from the party and to the control room in the basement. He notices some imposing men exiting the main floor, just as he and Abigail are heading to the now unguarded upstairs.

Riley easily remembers the path through the second floor they need to take, which is helpful since this place is even bigger than Ben and Abigail’s mansion. They make it to the door and Abigail says to Ben over comms, “We’re here.”

There’s a pause and then a light next to the handle turns green, and Riley quickly lets them in. “Ahh, technology.”

He goes right to Koenig’s desk to sit down and Abigail hands him the USB drive she had hidden in her lipstick. She leans against the desk and as Riley inserts the drive into Koenig’s computer, he mutters, “You really are the James Bond.”

Riley gets to work quickly on knocking down all of Koenig’s security measures and while it’s not easy, it’s easier than he expected. Koenig only cares about the money part of his inheritance, not the legacy of any of the artifacts his family collected over the years, so when he took over, he didn’t spend as much time on security as Riley would have if it was in his hands.

“I’m having a lot of fun, by the way.”

Riley grins a little but keeps his eyes on the screen. “At the party or this part?”

“Both. Usually our treasure hunting involves a lot of crawling around dirty, dangerous places. It’s nice to get dressed up and play spies.”

“Yeah, I’m really enjoying not being in a cave or a van.”

“This is the best fake marriage of all time.”

Riley continues working in silence for a few minutes and then claps his hands together. “Got it.”

“Really?”

“Well, I don’t have _it_ , as in exact GPS coordinates for his hidden storage facility… yet. But I have everything I need to get it and its being copied to the drive as we speak.”

She tilts her head suddenly and then looks back at him. “I hope its moving fast, because Ben has four men headed upstairs, including Koenig.”

“We’re at eighty percent right now, how close are they?”

Abigail starts looking around for another exit or a non-obvious hiding spot and then turns back to him. “Too close.”

She looks at the monitor like she wants to hit it and Riley glares at her. “It’s not a vending machine, you can’t just kick it to get it to work the way you want it.”

“Ben’s reprogramming the lock to stall them, but it won’t take long to override. So, hurry?”

The status is at ninety-nine percent when they hear Koenig trying to open the door. There’s a faint beep and Riley quickly grabs the drive and slips it into his pocket, then smacks the power button on the computer. “It’s done, but now what?”

“Trust me?”

“Well, we are married.”

“Just go along with me and don’t freak out.”

“I never freak out –“ he pauses and then shrugs, “Okay, sometimes I do, but I won’t.”

Abigail motions for him to stand up as she sits on the desk and pulls the skirt of her gown up to her thighs. Riley’s eyes get wide, but there’s no time to think about it as she grabs the lapels of his jacket and pulls him forward so that he’s standing between her legs.

“How much longer, Ben?” There’s a pause and she looks back up at Riley and says, “Two minutes.Take your jacket off.”

“Abigail – what –“

“I told you not to freak out.”

He does as she asks and she makes quick work of pulling his shirt out of his pants and messing up his hair a little. Riley is usually quicker to understand what’s going on and improvise, but the sight of her pulling up her dress around her thighs made his brain short out for a moment.

The noise from outside the door starts to get louder so she pulls him forward where their lips are almost touching, and Riley says her name, not Abigail but Abby, so softly that he can barely hear himself. She smiles before pressing her lips against his, and it feels _real_ , it feels real and good and not at all like a cover story. He’s still trying to process it all when she grabs his belt and shifts so they are practically glued to each other.

Riley’s hands go to her waist, but Abigail grabs his right hand and places it on her breast. He mumbles directly into her mouth, “Seriously?”

She responds with a wink and then silences him with her tongue, and Riley decides not to overthink it and begins gently massaging her breast over her dress. Abigail intensifies the kiss and wraps her legs around him. For a moment, he almost forgets there are some very dangerous people about to open that door but it’s not because of them that his heart is pounding. He moves his head so that he can kiss her neck and just before the door opens, he hears her moan and just about crumbles at the sound of it.

Riley is almost grateful for the door opening, because he’s not at all sure what would happen if they continued. Koenig starts yelling at them in German, and Abigail slides off the desk and starts calmly apologizing to him. Or at least he thinks she is, Riley’s German skills are pretty limited to asking where the bathroom is and ordering a beer.  While she’s talking to them, Riley grabs his jacket from the floor and slides a hand in his pocket to be sure that he still has the drive.

Abigail reaches back and grabs his hand and then gives him a serious look. “Come on, darling, I think we’ve outstayed our welcome.”

She pulls him past Koenig and his guards, and they walk briskly down the hall, down the stairs and towards the front door. “What did you say to them?”

Abigail stops and grins at him. “I said my dear husband has been away on business for two weeks, and that you’re far too irresistible, especially after such an absence.”

“And they bought it?”

“I sure hope so.”

Riley smooths down his messy hair as they walk out of the house and down to their limo. “Irresistible, huh?”

Abigail places her hand on his ass and gives it a little squeeze, causing Riley to shout, “Abigail!”

She turns and gives him a look of faux innocence. “That wasn’t me, that was Lena. And besides, it’s only fair.”

He gets in the car after her and though she’s still in a good mood, he suddenly feels heavier. It felt too real, to him, but he’s sure it wasn’t for her. What bothers him the most is that he doesn’t feel guilty because he kissed his best friend’s girl, he knows Ben always puts the mission first and won’t care. What makes him feel really awful is how much he wishes it wasn’t fake.

 

 

@

 

 

It’s close to four in the morning when he hears a very gentle knock at the door of his hotel suite. He’s wide awake, so he goes to the door, takes a peek and when he sees that it’s Abigail, he quickly lets her in. He doesn’t say anything to her, just walks back over to the table and sits at his laptop while Abby follows and sits across from him.

“You’re working?”

“Couldn’t sleep.”

He doesn’t tell her why though. That every time he closed his eyes, he thought of that kiss, of her hands on him, her underneath him. It was just a job, he knew that, but it only brought up all those feelings that he had so successfully tucked away for so long.

“Me too. All Ben did was sit in a van all night, and he fell asleep as soon as we got in. I’ve been up, reading, pacing, playing stupid games on my phone.”

“And how did you know I’d be up?”

“Strange hunch.”

He nods and then goes back to his work decoding Koenig’s files in silence. After about ten minutes of her just staring at him, she says, “Are you mad at me?”

“No.”

He doesn’t look at her as he says it, he’s too busy writing something down on the notepad next to his computer. He is mad though, but it’s not her fault, it’s just the way the world works. Riley sighs and then looks up at her. “Okay, yes.”

“I’m sorry. I got carried away, but I didn’t know what else to do and –“

“It’s not that. And I’m not really mad at _you_. I’m just mad at –“

He shakes his head and types something out on his keyboard, not even sure how to finish that sentence. She reaches across the table to touch his hand but Riley leans back to get out of her way. She frowns and says, “You’re my best friend, you know.”

“And you are mine.”

“More than Ben?”

“Yes.” It was true. Ben was important to him, but he could sometimes be grumpy and bad at communicating. Riley and Abigail had always gotten along perfectly though.

“I’m sorry I made things weird.”

Riley stands up and paces in front of the table a few times before stopping to say, “Maybe it was always weird and we just didn’t realize it.”

He let that bit of truth hang there for a while and he could tell by her face that she understood. There was _something_ there between them, had always been, but she had made her choice not even knowing that there was a second option. So he happily became the third wheel, because he didn’t want to lose either of them and because he was never _that_ guy, the kind to run just because a woman didn’t want to be with him.

Abigail stood and was about to say something when his computer started beeping. Riley turned to look at it and then turned back with a huge smile. “We got it.”

“What?”

“Well, it’s a clue wrapped in a clue, which is probably wrapped in another clue, it’s a Russian nesting doll of clues. But, we’re used to that, so no big deal.”

“You’re a genius.”

His grin widens and he nods because though the rest of the night was weird, he always had his computer skills and those never let him down. “I know.”

Abigail grabs his face and pulls him toward her, and this time it’s real, without any doubt in his mind. He pulls her close and they stumble backwards until he’s sitting on the edge of the bed and Abigail is sitting on his lap. He has time to take it all in now, the smell and taste of her, the way her body feels pressed up against his. It’s better than it was earlier that night, because it means something for both of them now.

But then he feels it, like something is clutching his heart and squeezing it, so he breaks away and looks at her intently. “This is wrong.”

“Because of Ben?”

“Of course, because of Ben.”

She smiles and leans in to kiss him on the neck, and his mind is telling him to make her stop, but then she nibbles on his earlobe gently before whispering, “It’s okay.”

Abigail faces him again and says, “I love Ben. And I love you. And Ben is okay with it. So if you’re okay with it, we’ll make it work.”

“Ben is okay with… this?”

“We’ve talked about it, plenty of times, we just never did anything about it. And honestly, when Ben gets in one of his moods, I spend more time with you than him anyway.”

“So. Wait. You and me, together. You and Ben, together. And that works for everyone?”

“Polyamory has been a perfectly acceptable way to live throughout history and in different cultures. It’s only in our close-minded Western world that it’s suddenly frowned upon.”

It’s all a surprise to him, that she had been considering it for a while, but also that he couldn’t think of a reason why it wouldn’t work. These were the two people most important to him, and if it made them all happy, then it couldn’t hurt to try.

Abigail had now begun to rattle off the names of places and time periods when polyamory was socially accepted, and he knew if he let her keep going, she could talk history for hours. So he stopped her in the middle of a sentence with a kiss. For once, history could wait.


End file.
